What is success… how do I measure success? This is something I have heard and read about for years, going through high school and then college, entering my professional career, getting married, etc. But nothing taught me better in how I personally measure success than my time here at the Gospel Rescue Mission.

I remember saying to myself, “Not everyone can be a lawyer, or a doctor.” Remember hearing these lines before?! But what is success to someone who never was able to continue to go through high school or even elementary school, thus never obtaining even their GED because mom or dad were addicts? Would success be to that person getting their GED? You Betcha! Or for someone who is so afraid of people, would simply being able to stay in the shelter at the Gospel Rescue Mission be a remarkable feat? Or even, owning up to, for the first time, one’s personal involvement in bad decisions made – is this not success?

​Success used to mean something very different to me until I met people whose courage and sacrifice stopped me in my tracks. Could I ever do what they are doing? Could I be that trusting or that honest? This is how I measure success now.